Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931-) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 11 March 1985 to 24 August 1991, succeeding Konstantin Chernenko, and President of the Soviet Union from 15 March 1990 to 25 December 1991. Gorbachev was the leader of the USSR for six years, and he attempted to modernize the country through his perestroika and glasnost reforms; he also withdrew Soviet Army troops from Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. However, his policies weakened the USSR, leading to a rise in ethnic nationalism in many Soviet republics and the dissolution of the country. Boris Yeltsin replaced Gorbachev as leader of the USSR.

Biography
Mikhail Gorbachev was born in the Caucasian town of Privolnoye, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union on 2 March 1931 to a family of Russians and Ukrainians, and he graduated from Moscow State University in 1955 with a degree in law. In 1967, he became an agricultural economist, and he enrolled in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union while studying. In 1970, he became First Secretary of the Stavropol Regional Committee as a CPSU member, and he became a central committee member in 1971. In 1978, he joined the Secretariat of Agriculture, and he became known as a promising young communist leader. As Konstantin Chernenko died of his terminal illness, he realized that Russia needed a younger generation to lead the country, and he chose Gorbachev as his successor.

Soviet leader
Only three hours after Chernenko's death on 11 March 1985, Gorbachev became the new General Secretary of the CPSU, the first General Secretary to be born after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Gorbachev implemented several reforms, including the perestroika economic reforms, the glasnost political reforms, and a tax increase on alcohol, seeking to meet the needs of average Soviet citizens through the reconstruction of the economy and politics. The West hailed Gorbachev for his new thinking, and he appeased the West by agreeing to halt nuclear weapons production and to withdraw Soviet Army troops from Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. This allowed for revolutions to occur in the Eastern Bloc and for the Mujahideen to seize power in Afghanistan, and nationalist sentiment grew among non-Russians in the USSR. This led to the breakup of the USSR in 1990 and 1991, and Gorbachev began to lose control over the nation. His political rival, Boris Yeltsin, would win the presidential election in the summer of 1991, defeating Gorbachev's ally Nikolai Ryzhkov. From 19 to 21 August 1991, CPSU hardliners under Gennady Yanayev and Dmitry Yazov attempted to overthrow the Russian government, and Gorbachev was arrested and held prisoner at Foros. Yeltsin raced to the Russian White House and managed to put down the coup, and Yeltsin became Russia's new national hero. Gorbachev's hopes of a new Soviet Union were crushed as more and more countries began to leave the union. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev announced his resignation as General Secretary of the CPSU, ending the USSR.

Retirement
After the dissolution of the USSR, Gorbachev became involved with socialist and social democratic politics, and he criticized both NATO and Vladimir Putin's conservative regime. Gorbachev founded the Union of Social Democrats party in 2007, and he called for democracy in Russia. Gorbachev joined the "Club of Madrid" organization of former world leaders to promote democracy, and he remained an important political figure even after the fall of the USSR.